Ollie, Ollie, Oxen Free !!! Lisle Park District's 2014 Proposed Budget is Out of Hiding

Last week, the Lisle Park District Board of Commissioner's meeting agenda included a discussion of the proposed draft budget for FY 2014. However, despite a new transparency effort to post board packets online before commission meetings, the draft 2014 budget was not posted on the District's website. And it still isn't.

Lisle Watchdog submitted a FOIA last week to obtain a copy of the 2014 draft budget.


Ollie, Ollie, Oken Free!
Click the link to download the entire 2014 draft budget.  
http://bit.ly/1emy9mx

Notably, there is no overall "executive summary" of proposed budget revenue and expenditures, so one has to take the time to go through the budget fund-by-fund, section-by-section, line-by-line, all 145 pages, and compare previous year's actual revenues and expenditures to the proposed revenues and expenditures for next year.


Here are some of the budget highlights....

Corporate Fund:  (primary revenue source is property tax) pg 17

                                         Revenue         Expenditures    Surplus (Deficit)  
  2011 Actual                      2,068,938         2,103,192           (   34,254)
  2012 Actual                      2,145,937         2,299,826           ( 153,889)
  2013 Projected Actual        2,122,408         2,356,290           ( 233,882) 
  2014 Proposed Budget        2,888,300(*)      2,555,362(**)        332,938

      (*) 36% higher than 2013 projected actual revenues
    (**) 8.5% higher than 2013 projected actual expenditures


Recreation Fund: (revenue sources are program fees subsidized w/ property taxes) pg 114

                                         Revenue           Expenditures    Surplus (Deficit)  
  2011 Actual                       2,348,570          2,338,117            10,453
  2012 Actual                       2,478,709          2,240,313           238,396
  2013 Projected Actual         2,425,820          2,035,242           390,578 
  2014 Proposed Budget         2,009,062(*)       2,260,478(**)      (251,416)
   
      (*) 17% lower than 2013 projected actual revenues
    (**) 11% higher than 2013 projected actual expenditures


Golf & Restaurant Fund: (revenue sources are program fees) pg 144

                                         Revenue            Expenditures     Surplus (Deficit)  
  2011 Actual                       1,999,996           1,824,464           175,532
  2012 Actual                       1,843,754           1,698,501           145,253
  2013 Projected Actual         1,872,921           1,944,546           (  71,625) 
  2014 Proposed Budget         1,877,917(*)        1,927,195(**)      (  49,278)
   
      (*) 0.2% higher than 2013 projected actual revenues
    (**) 0.9% lower than 2013 projected actual expenditures


IMRF Pension Fund: (revenue source is property taxes) pg 123

                                       Revenue              Expenditures      Surplus (Deficit)  
  2011 Actual                        235,152               272,392            ( 37,240)
  2012 Actual                        249,766               252,628            (   2,862)
  2013 Projected Actual          339,921               260,000               79,921 
  2014 Proposed Budget          375,050(*)            275,000 (**)        100,050
   
      (*) 10% lower than 2013 projected actual revenues
    (**) 5.8% higher than 2013 projected actual expenditures


Trips & Conventions for Elected Officials

One line that really caught our attention was the proposed huge increase for expenditures in the budget for the Board of Commissioners (elected officials), primarily allocated for conference expenses. 

    Board of Commissioners Expenses (page 8)

     2011 Actual                        1,086
     2012 Actual                           733                      
     2013 Projected Actual          2,509
     2014 Proposed Budget        11,500